Prep tennis: Clovis West’s Ellis, Buchanan pair land top section finals seeds

Clovis West High singles player Janie Ellis and the doubles team of Buchanan’s Lasya Gudipudi and Lauren Lee were given the top seeds for the Central Section individual girls tennis championships, which are set for Friday and Saturday in Visalia.

In what’s being lauded as one of the deepest singles fields in event history, Ellis tops a 16-girl bracket that sees defending champion Chelsey Ruiz of Bullard seeded sixth.

Ellis will face Sanger’s 16th-seeded Winter Lee when the first round launches at 9 a.m. Friday at Redwood High. Quarterfinals are at 1 p.m. Doubles play starts at 11 a.m, and continues with quarterfinals at 3 p.m.

Times for Saturday’s semifinals and finals will be announced at the end of play Friday.

Ellis’ Tri-River Athletic Conference rival Sravya Gudipudi of Buchanan was seeded second in singles, followed by No. 3 Arianna Tilbury of Stockdale, No. 4 Elizabeth Schulz of Clovis North and No. 5 Anastasia Drulias of Garces.

At No. 6 comes Ruiz, who as the seventh seed last season upset the sixth and second seeds en route to winning the section title 6-0, 1-6, 6-4 over No. 9 Vivian Wen of Memorial in the final.

The rest of the singles field includes No. 7 Madison Swaney of Frontier, No. 8 Delaney Roche of Bakersfield Christian, No. 9 Claire Young of Redwood, No. 10 Marah Caubat of Delano, No. 11 Paige Darstein of Independence, No. 12 Nandini Nair of Clovis North, No. 13 Kelly Crouch of Clovis, No. 14 Simran Sarai of Ridgeview and No. 15 Anindita Rajasekaran of El Diamante.

In doubles, Lasya Gudipudi and Lee head up a TRAC dominated top-half of the 16-team bracket. The TRAC champions are one of four teams from the conference seeded in the top five, the others being No. 2 Neha Pondicherry/Lily Reddivalam of Clovis North, No. 3 Kylie Campama/Shelby Noble of Clovis West and No. 5 Abby Broughton/Natty Villarreal of Clovis East.

The only non-TRAC team among the top five is No. 4 Zoe Vargas and Kate Swertfager of Bullard.

Lasya Gudipudi, along with then partner Breanna Arbuckle, were fourth in doubles last season. Vargas placed second in 2012 and third in 2013 in doubles with former partner Ruiz.

Other doubles seeds include No. 6 Emily Horrigan/Erica Paradise of Stockdale, No. 7 Jordan Pickett/Nikki Purwall of Clovis North, No. 8 Gabby Gutierrez/Ashley Woolman of Clovis, No. 9 Arianna Acevedo/Serena Contreras of Wasco, No. 10 Dipika Khullar/Mia Sawaya of Stockdale, No. 11 Madeline Kuney/Margo Kuney of Bakersfield, No. 12 Maddie Giannetto/Maddie McDonald of Monache, No. 13 Annabella McGilvery/Abby Stevens of Bakersfield Christian, No. 14 Kristina Raulino/Angelika Loewen of Lemoore, No. 15 Kerris Lassley/Alyssa Byde of Sanger and No. 16 Breegan Anderson/Alyssa Regier of Immanuel.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Prep tennis: Clovis West’s Ellis, Buchanan pair land top section finals seeds."